Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told a House panel Tuesday that the agency has yet to find a way to measure whether the nation’s borders are secure.
“I recently issued a directive to better define out border metrics and how we should define border security,” Johnson told the House Homeland Security Committee. “That is a work in progress.”
Johnson faced aggressive questioning from House Republicans who held the hearing in response to President Obama’s recent executive action to stem the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants.
Some Republicans say Obama’s directive will encourage a flood of new illegal entries who will cross the southern border with ease. Last year, nearly a half million illegal immigrants crossed into the United States, Johnson told the panel.
“I don’t think that we have the metrics we need to determine whether the border is secure or not,” Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told Johnson.
House Republicans are looking for ways to counter Obama’s deportation directive, and the hearing was aimed at demonstrating the move will further threaten security along the southern border.
“Sadly, the Department of Homeland Security is unprepared to handle the coming surge that the president’s policies will incite,” said committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas. “The Border Patrol’s resources are already strained as immigrants pour across the border, making it difficult to identify smugglers, criminals and potential terrorists.”
Johnson told the panel the president’s executive action came after months of consultations and studies and would result in prioritizing deportations so that criminals are not allowed to remain in the U.S.
“The reality is that for decades, presidents have used executive authority to enhance immigration policy,” Johnson testified. “President Obama views these actions as a first step toward the reform of the system and continues to count on Congress for the more comprehensive reform that only changes in law can provide.”
But Republicans hammered away at the plan, noting that 30,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions were released into the United States during the last several years.
Johnson said he was making reforms within the system so that “there will be a higher-level approval authority for circumstance when somebody with a criminal record is released from immigration detention on bond.”
He did not provide specifics.
The president’s directive will allow more than 4 million illegal immigrants to remain in the United States as lawful residents who can apply for work permits and eventually Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Democrats said the move was needed because House Republicans have failed to introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
“Time and again, the House Republican leadership has been unwilling to act to fix our broken immigration system,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the panel. “In the face of this crisis and the absence of congressional action, the president acted in a measured way that is likely to improve both our nation’s security and economy.”
Johnson said those who want to apply for legal status would have to pay a $460 fee, which he expects to reduce the number of applications.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., questioned how Johnson’s department would fund and staff the screening of 4 million applicants.
“Right now you have a couple of dozen field stations,” Miller said. “I’m not quite sure of the mechanics of actually doing a case-by-case review. And I think that will be such an important critical component for the department, so that you’re not just doing a free-for-all and just rubber-stamping and really taking a look at all of this.”
Johnson said his department will have six months to prepare for the influx.
Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., said the new immigrants will add to the nation’s economy by raising $3 billion in payroll taxes in the first year and $22.6 billion over five years.
“Even individual states will gain from this,” Clarke said.
